Flyers bested by Bobrovsky in shutout loss to Blue Jackets

The Blue Jackets’ Brandon Dubinsky, right, celebrates the team’s second goal against Flyers goalie Steve Mason, left, and Kimmo Timonen during the third period of Columbus’ 2-0 win Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

PHILADELPHIA — While circumventing the stretch drive the Flyers have taken pride in sticking with the best opponents the NHL can offer. What they’ve also done is lose five of their last six games, putting them in a precipitous position in the Metropolitan Division.

While shootout losses the previous several days to the intimidating likes of Boston and St. Louis earned a point each and felt like minor successes, a 2-0 home loss Thursday night to lost goalie star Sergei Bobrovsky and the Columbus Blue Jackets only promises to haunt.

With yet another nasty game ahead in Boston Saturday, the Flyers (39-28-9, 87 points) have fallen more than a couple of steps behind the New York Rangers and hold a mere two-point edge over the Blue Jackets (39-30-7—85) in the Metro standings.

If it got to a wild-card race, the Flyers are but one point up on seventh-seeded Detroit, so things aren’t exactly comfortable there, either. And don’t look now, but with a stunning win over the big, bad Bruins Thursday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs (38-33-8—84) are all of three points behind the Flyers, one behind the Red Wings.

Making stop after stop, he had the Flyers flustered, this goalie they had cast off in the summer of 2012 to try to make strange newcomer Ilya Bryzgalov feel a little more comfortable.

Instead, it was Bobrovsky winning the Vezina Trophy last season that made Flyers fans squirm, and in this first game back at Wells Fargo Center, he had them itching for relief with every perfectly crafted stifling of Flyers attacks.

“Anytime you play against your old team you kind of want to give a little bit more,” Claude Giroux said of Bobrovsky. “We all know he’s a good goalie and he proved it tonight. ... He challenged the puck a lot. He comes out of his net and takes the angles off and he’s so quick it’s tough to beat him.”

Of course, his former teammates had something to do with that.

“We came out in the third period flat,” Scott Hartnell said, “and that hadn’t been our MO all year.”

It also didn’t resemble the kind of hockey they had played for much of the first two periods.

At one point in the second period, the Flyers had doubled up the Blue Jackets in shots at 26-13. But shortly thereafter, with just six seconds remaining in a Columbus power play, James Wisniewski slid one under Steve Mason for a 1-0 lead.

That essentially served to take the air out of the Flyers.

Or was it Bobrovsky doing that all along?

“You want to see good players, good guys, do well,” Columbus coach Todd Richards said. “You pull for them. Bob is that guy. Everyone sees how he plays out on the ice, but when you interact with him every day you see it’s always about the team. It’s never about him. To come into this building, in a really big hockey game, and come in and shut these guys out, it says a lot about Bob.”

What doesn’t say a lot about Bob ... is Bob.

What about that, Bob?

“It was exciting,” Bobrovsky said of his return. “Different — it’s tough to explain. I think it was different. It was special.”

As for whether he was a bit more fired up, he added, “I wasn’t mad or anything; it was definitely a huge game.”

You couldn’t tell that from the Flyers’ power play, that usually special unit that was magical on this night, if only because it brought on waves of boos from an otherwise sleepy WFC crowd.

The Flyers’ power play relay team went an inglorious 0-for-4 on the night, and has gone without a goal in its last 12 man-advantage opportunities. Not a good time for that oh-so special teams unit to run dry.

“We chased the puck around,” Hartnell said. “It seemed like they had more chances than we did. I don’t think we were on our toes ready to attack them.”

The Flyers promptly allowed the Blue Jackets to take over the game in the third period, then increase their lead on a goal that went right through Mason after hitting Brandon Dubinsky in a stationary skate at the 3:20 mark.

“We stopped playing in the third, and that’s the bad thing,” Wayne Simmonds said. “I thought we had a great first and second. Then for reasons unknown, we just stopped playing.”

The Flyers finally began to press in the waning minutes, but Bobrovsky stymied both Jake Voracek and Hartnell. The Flyers even pulled Mason with almost 2:30 to go in regulation to no avail.

Bobrovsky’s big stop of a Brayden Schenn offering offered one last reminder of the goalie they lost and the job of making the playoffs that still lies ahead.

“It’s just really frustrating that we haven’t had a goal in two games,” said Hartnell, referencing a 1-0 shootout loss in St. Louis Tuesday and this more significant blanking by the Blue Jackets that stretched the Flyers’ regulation and overtime scoreless streak to 130 minutes, 25 seconds. “We’ve got a big weekend to put those two games behind us and get a few points.”